Category: Economic issues

This goal/wish might seem even more unlikely than world peace, but I feel it is worth a stab none the less – so much so that I thought I’d even risk putting something as potentially boring as economics at the start of my Ne Year’s list (which is of a still indeterminate length). Perhaps convincing…

The LNP in Queensland have been softening up the public for a privatisation binge pretty much from the day they got elected in 2012. In recent times, they’ve kindly made the public pay millions for a prolonged wide-ranging advertising campaign – badly disguised as a pretend consultation process called Strong Choices. Naturally, any input from…

I’m MC at a free public forum in Brisbane tomorrow (Tuesday) evening on the topic of Can Queensland Afford the Mining Boom? The forum is organised by The Australia Institute, whose Executive Director, Dr Richard Denniss will be speaking. It will explore the economic and social downsides of the mining boom. (I imagine some of…

I mentioned in a recent post about election forums I’ve helped organise with various migrant communities in Brisbane, Logan and Toowoomba. I’ve enjoyed being a (mostly) disinterested observer, seeing the different styles and angles the various candidates have taken at each event. I’ve been going to all of them as part of one of the…

The headlines after COAG focused on health and education and the overall size of the money handed out (with the usual uncertainty about how much was ‘new’ money and how much had already been promised or committed). Jon Altman from ANU has written a good rundown on the various COAG agreements which relate to Indigenous…

Everyone knows that billions of dollars are needed to address the third world conditions many Indigenous Australians live in, including horrendously overcrowded housing, poor road access and other infrastructure problems. But I haven’t seen any mention so far of spending money to address these problems in the flurry of bidding that has started following the…

While it won’t be enough to get the measure through the Senate, it’s good to see the Greens negotiate a reasonable agreement with the federal government regarding the planned tax increase on higher priced cars. (UPDATE 4/9 – The legislation was voted down in the Senate this morning without any opporutnity for amendments to be…

It is disappointing, but sadly not surprising, to see this report in the Canberra Times suggesting the Coalition is planning to adopt a more explicitly anti-migrant position. Despite all the evidence about the demographic inevitability of a shrinking labour force, growing international mobility (including record emigration from Australia) and the latest research showing the significant net…

I am pleased to see the federal government has formally announced a trial allowing up to 2500 people from neighbouring countries of Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea to do seasonal work in Australia. In doing so, they have shown up the failure of courage and policy integrity of the previous government. The Opposition’s…

Very interesting suggestion reportedly made yesterday by federal Superannuation Minister, Nick Sherry – floating the removal of the 15 per cent super contributions tax for women as one way of bringing their retirement savings into line with men. “Women spend significant more time out of the workforce than men and super splitting is not a solution,…

This morning I attended the launch of the Brisbane Social Enterprise Hubs’ accelerator program. Social enterprises build economically sustainable businesses specifically aimed at providing employment, income and business experience to people from more disadvantaged backgrounds. The focus is on building social capital alongside the financial returns, rather than being driven by wealth creation and (maybe) using…

Due to the way the government wanted to order Senate business in the final week, the formal Valedictory speeches of departing Senators were not actually the last speech for many of us. Below is the text of what was my actual final speech (and the final words spoken by a Democrat in the Senate). I…

There is heaps of commentary on the Budget on a myriad of different websites – a couple I found of interest are here, here and here. Rather than write my views about it in detail here, I’ll just reproduce a speech I made in the Senate today during a debate (of sorts) about the Budget….

Two years ago I did a series of posts on possible options for tax reform. There was quite a deal of debate around the country in the lead up to the 2006 Budget about ways we could improve the fairness and efficiency of our tax system – all of which basically went nowhere. The major…

There seems to be a very widespread view amongst economic and other commentators that it will be a bad thing for the economy, and particularly for efforts to contain further growth in inflation, if the government goes ahead with its election promise to implement a further 31 billion dollars in income tax cuts. It should…

Most of the major party focus in the last week has been on interest rates and economic management. The battle for bragging rights about which party is supposedly the best economic manager is faintly ludicrous, given that both sides at various times have made a point of emphasising how similar their basic tax and economic…

It seems a long time ago now, but in the months leading up to the 2006 Budget, there was a whole lot of people, including many members of the Coalition, engaging in debate about possible tax reforms. I did a series of blog posts on it at the time. When Budget time came, the Treasurer…

The latest official unemployment figures show a national total of 4.2 per cent, which is reportedly the lowest level since 1974. Reports on unemployment figures inevitably bring questions about just how accurate they are, and how much underemployment is ignored. There have certainly been comments left on this blog a number of times to that…

As noted in this comment from a reader, I had another go at pushing the issue of housing affordability in the Senate last week. This time I put up the following motion in what is known as a matter of urgency debate: The need for a national affordable housing strategy to be developed, involving all…

Yesterday I attended a Harmony Day function at the Brolga Theatre in the town of Maryborough. It was great to get away, even briefly, from the Senate and all its Santo shenanigans, and get back out into the real world – particularly a part of it lovely as Maryborough. If you’ve never been there, I’d…

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About Andrew

Andrew Bartlett has been active in politics for over 25 years, including serving as a Senator for Queenland from 1997-2008. This blog started in 2004 and reflects his own views, independent of any political party or organisation.

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